Saint Anthony with the Baby Jesus

Product Description

SORRY this painting has been SOLDCusco School painting measuring 16 x 24 inches, unstretchedThis painting portrays Saint Anthony, who tenderly cradles baby Jesus. Anthony's wealthy family wanted him to be a great nobleman, but for the sake of Christ he became a poor Franciscan priest. When the remains of Saint Berard and his companions, the first Franciscan martyrs, were brought to be buried in his church, Anthony was moved to leave his order, enter the Friars Minor, and go to Morocco to evangelize. Shipwrecked at Sicily, he joined some other brothers who were going to Portiuncula. Lived in a cave at San Paolo leaving only to attend Mass and sweep the nearby monastery. One day when a scheduled speaker failed to appear, the brothers pressed him into speaking. He impressed them so that he was thereafter constantly travelling, evangelizing, preaching, and teaching theology through Italy and France. A gifted speaker, he attracted crowds everywhere he went, speaking in multiple tongues; legend says that even the fish loved to listen. One of the most beloved of saints, his images and statues are found everywhere. There are subtle high-relief details, with purpurina (Gold Leaf) being used to accentuate finishing touches. A typical Andean scene occupies the background.

This painting is oil on canvas and measures 16 x 24 inches. It is not stretched, and was painted after the year 2000. It will be mailed in a hard tube.

The history of the Peruvian painting has its origins at the colonial era. The Spanish painters who arrived at the Viceroyalty of Peru taught their techniques to the local artists, and they began to shape on linen cloths their own representations, creating a new iconographic interpretation of the Peruvian reality. The Catholic divinities were adapted to indigenous sensitivity and given a singular representation that had its maxim expression in the "School of Cusco Painting" ( La Escuela Cusqueña), during centuries XVII and XVIII.

This painting has been done in the style of the works of La Escuela Cusqueña, the history of which is traced to the 17th century. Originally influenced by Spanish and Italian artists, this school was commissioned to paint sacred art in churches and monasteries throughout the Peruvian city of Cusco after the area was devastated by an earthquake in 1650. The collected efforts of numerous artists gradually evolved into a unique yet harmonious and consistent style, devoid of individualism. These paintings are usually not signed, but represent traditional depictions of the religious subjects most important to the local indigenous and Hispanic populations.